Wal

Wal-Mart just doesn't get it. Donate, donate, donate to the aldermanic campaign funds. They will follow the money. After all, they are puppets - expensive puppets, but puppets nonetheless. -- Ray Mazurkiewicz, McHenry, Ill.

Actor and comedian Tracy Morgan was released from a rehabilitation center to finish his recovery at home from a New Jersey crash in June that left him critically injured and killed a fellow passenger, his spokesman said on Saturday. The announcement came just days after he sued Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc in a New Jersey federal court, alleging the retailer knew or should have known its truck driver, Kevin Roper, was...

Wal-Mart will roll out a minority-supplier program in Chicago in the coming months, focused on professional services, food and general merchandise, said Thomas Mars, U.S. chief administrative officer for the company, at a luncheon for the Metropolitan Planning Council. The program will be national, but launch here, Mars said. Mars, previously the chain's general counsel, said the company has implemented a similar initiative in its legal office. According to a 2006...

A Detroit artist-turned-businessman said he was "floating" Tuesday afternoon after his company, Trash-Ease, which makes portable trash-bag holders, landed its biggest order ever at Wal-Mart's "Made in the USA" open call to find American-made products. The event Tuesday at Wal-Mart's Bentonville, Ark., headquarters was part of the retailer's initiative, announced last year, to buy an additional $250 billion worth of American-made products over the next decade, either by buying more from its...

Don't you shop at Tiffany, Santa? The year my granddaughter Barbara was 4, her Aunt Colleen took her Christmas shopping. As they went through the Christmas display, Barbara spied a Santa suit. Excitedly she exclaimed, "Look, Santa shops at Wal-Mart, too!"

BENTONVILLE Arkansas (Reuters) - U.S. employers may be hiring again, but the job market recovery is not giving ordinary consumers enough confidence to increase their spending, a top Wal-Mart executive said on Monday. In an interview with Reuters, Bill Simon, the president and chief executive officer of Wal-Mart U.S., said the improving employment picture had so far failed to raise cash register receipts at the retailer's U.S. stores. "It's really hard to see in...

By David Bonior, Chairman, American Rights at work, Washington | September 10, 2004

Reporters Gary Washburn and H. Gregory Meyer ("Wal-Mart hasn't written off city; But South Side plan off the table," Sept. 1) illuminate some of the questionable and outright flagrant attempts of Wal-Mart to trump workers' rights. Chicago has ordinances pending that would "set minimum pay and benefit standards for employees." Wal-Mart's response to not renew the contract with developers displays the megastore's commitment to not protect its workers' rights. The company's charge that "big-box" employee...

When did Chicagoans become so dependent on "big-box" stores for employment and purchasing choices? How do the people in New York City and Boston survive without Wal-Marts in their towns? How did we survive all these years without these stores? Every neighborhood in New York has its local grocer, deli, drugstore, hardware store and cleaners. People aren't forced to drive to a mega-store for the same products and services. The trick to big-box is consequential: Buy more cheaply, buy more stuff, acquire more...

By Siddharth Cavale (Reuters) - Fernando Madeira comes to his new job as head of online business for Wal-Mart Stores Inc with a reputation as an e-commerce whiz, having engineered a surge in the retailer's online sales in Latin America. In his enlarged role, the Brazilian company veteran will face a more formidable challenge - taking on Amazon.com Inc in the far-more developed U.S. online marketplace, where the world's biggest retailer is yet to make its mark. ...

Through the last 50 years, as factories and other businesses left the black South and West Sides and took thousands of jobs to the suburbs, to the South, to Mexico and to Asia, Chicago's unions were mostly silent. When Sears, J.C. Penney, Zayre and Goldblatt in several West and South Side locations all had closed up shop by the early 1990s, leaving inner-city black shoppers with no choice but to drive miles out of their neighborhoods to buy quality, reasonably priced merchandise, the unions were silent.

An armed man and woman shouting about a "revolution" opened fire and killed two Las Vegas policemen who were eating lunch in a pizza parlor on Sunday, then fatally shot a civilian in a nearby Wal- Mart store before killing themselves, police said. The two uniformed patrol officers, later identified as Alyn Beck , 41, and Igor Soldo , 31 - both family men - were ambushed without provocation shortly before 11:30 a.m. local time inside a CiCi's Pizza shop,...

The nation's love-hate relationship with Wal-Mart is taking an unexpected turn now that the "Beast from Bentonville" is endorsing a plan to require employers to provide health coverage for all workers. The National Retail Federation on Monday directly criticized Wal-Mart for endorsing mandated health care. Such a plan, the retailers lobby said in a letter to members, "would be catastrophic for our industry." The debate, then, shapes up something...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wal-Mart shares fell sharply in an instant as volume spiked late on Wednesday afternoon, in an out-of-the-ordinary mini "flash crash," data showed. In less than one second, the stock of the world's largest retailer tumbled from $78.66 to $78.06. Within a minute, the stock rebounded, with nearly 250,000 shares changing hands between 3:20 p.m. EDT and 3:21 p.m. in 11 exchanges. It was the busiest minute this week in Wal-Mart trading outside of...

Tests of two Chinese brands of dog treats sold at Wal-Mart stores found traces of melamine, a chemical agent that led to a huge pet food recall in March, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. Wal-Mart quietly stopped selling Chicken Jerky Strips from Import-Pingyang Pet Product Co. and Chicken Jerky from Shanghai Bestro Trading in July after customers said the products sickened their pets. A company spokeswoman said 17 sets of tests done on the products found melamine, an ingredient in plastics.

DENVER (Reuters) - Wal-Mart has settled lawsuits with the families of 23 people who died from a 2011 listeria outbreak traced to cantaloupe grown at a Colorado farm and sold by the retailer, both sides said on Wednesday. Thirty-three people died and 147 others across 28 states became sick after eating the tainted melons in one of the deadliest U.S. outbreaks of food-borne illness. The attorney for the families, Bill Marler, said the settlement was a "piece of...

A shooting inside a Wal-Mart in Deming, N.M., wounded a 6-year-old girl, an employee and another man Tuesday, police said. Two suspects were arrested. Police also were searching for a "person of interest" who may have witnessed the shooting. The weapon, a .38-caliber handgun, was recovered inside the store.

A few weeks back Wal-Mart said it was going to test market used car sales at its stores in the Houston area later this year. The retailer leased property adjacent to five stores for the venture. Now comes word that Wal-Mart plans to offer 24-hour roadside assistance to motorists through any of its stores. The service, for a fee, includes changing flat tires, towing up to 30 miles, battery jumps, lock-out service and fuel delivery for those stranded by an empty tank.